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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sernett" data-source="post: 376114" data-attributes="member: 7670">When I got issue #200 as a subscriber, I was amazed. Looking at the magazine coming out of the mailbox, like most readers I was surprised and excited by three things: the magazine's size, the new binding, and the holograph on the cover. What I and most readers didn't understand was how much those three factors made the magazine cost. To be frank, issue #200 made TSR lose money—a lot of it. It was an incredibly popular issue among subscribers and newsstand buyers alike, but it lost money all the same. This fact was mollified somewhat by the idea that the magazines were a marketing vehicle.For a long time, the magazines at Wizards of the Coast were viewed as marketing vehicles, but over time that outlook changed. The magazines had to improve quality and increase circulation to survive. We did—Dragon now has a larger circulation than it ever did before—but not enough to outweigh the profitability and decreased risk of licensing the magazine. They were sold to Paizo Publishing, a new company formed by investors and the people who worked on the magazine because we have faith in the magazines. But make no mistake, Dragon is not merely a marketing vehicle anymore; it must make money every issue, or it will cease to exist. Fortunately, most people think we're doing a pretty good job. Like I said before, Dragon is at its peak right now and shows every sign of climbing higher.Issue #300 has its expensive parts: the gold ink on the cover, the sealed section binding, premium authors, and the multitude of full-color art pieces. These expenses are risks, and as anyone who has worked for a start-up company knows, risks can be deadly. Greater risks, such as adding another 60 pages and a hologram on the cover would have broken Dragon's back; there's no supporting company able to shoot itself in the foot and swallow those costs for the sake of marketing.There is only one article that could be called a product tie-in in issue #300. "Secrets of the Skinscribes" uses some rules from the Book of Vile Darkness, but it gives you all the rules you need to use every spell or alternate rules if you don't want to use them. Every other article in the issue is the same type of horror/dark/evil content that Dragon has had in nearly every October issue in since issue #1 of "The Dragon.""Up on a Soapbox" by Gary Gygax"Hellish Fangs on Abyssal Wings" by James Wyatt"How Far Should You go?" by Monte Cook"The Flesheaster" by Monte Cook"Secrets of the Skinscribes" by James Jacobs"Elminster's Guide to the Realms" by Ed Greenwood"The Minions of Darkness" by Eric Cagle"The Risen Dead" by Wizards of the Coast R&DIf you don't know who these authors are, check out the credits pages of the books on your shelves.With more useful game content for D&D in issue #300 than in issue #200 and #100 combined, I'd like to say that issue #300 sets the standard for the next 100 issues, but Dragon serves the needs of the majority of readers better with each new issue, and we're always trying to raise the bar. Matthew SernettAssociate EditorDragon Magazine</blockquote>

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